United Nations Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF) – the IGF process
The Swiss IGF is the national spin-off from the global process of the UN Internet Governance Forum, in which all stakeholders agree on the definition of rules of the Internet. (“Internet Governance”). The Global Internet Governance Forum was created in 2005 at the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Since then, numerous regional and national forums have been set up spontaneously.
At the regional – i.e. pan-European – level, the IGF process is managed under the framework of the EuroDIG.
The Swiss IGF has been in existence since 2015, is organised independently of the other levels and generally comes together on an annual basis.
Support
The Swiss IGF is led and supported by a steering group consisting of around a dozen volunteers from the worlds of politics, business, science and civil society. Its patron is the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM).
Multi-stakeholder character
The Swiss IGF is distinguished by an approach in which all stakeholder groups discuss the future challenges and opportunities of digitisation on equal terms and jointly seek solutions to social or regulatory issues.
Inclusively defined agenda
The agenda is defined by means of an inclusive process that allows all stakeholders to put forward topics for discussion (call for issues). This makes it possible for every aspect of the digital transformation to be addressed (rather than being restricted to topics strictly related to the technical organisation of the Internet), such as cyber security, data management, social media, artificial intelligence, human rights online and net neutrality. The steering group is responsible for the final selection of topics.
Multilingualism
The Swiss IGF covers Switzerland as a whole and is conducted in several languages – German, French and English.
Outcome and messages
The Swiss IGF is a future-oriented discussion platform and is therefore not restricted to seeking to achieve specific results. The main debates of the past events (2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015) have been summarised in the form of messages that can be downloaded and shared.